Professor Sarah Glennie

Director

Through this site you can explore the full breadth of work by our extraordinary graduates. We are exceptionally proud of the final-year and postgraduate students who are part of NCAD Works 2023, and in sharing their work with you we would like to pay tribute to them and the ways in which they have individually responded to the immense challenges that the last few years have posed. Their work stands as testament to the dedication, resilience and creativity that has inspired us all through some challenging years, and I know all my colleagues at NCAD are extremely proud of everything that they have achieved. 

Our students are fully engaged with the world beyond the NCAD campus and they continue to demonstrate their ambition and commitment to make work that has impact and meaning to us all in many different ways. The big challenges that face society can be traced across our graduates' work as they apply their creativity to bringing new solutions, critical thinking and reflection onto issues including sustainability, gender identity and equality, wellbeing, new technologies and our digital and material futures.  

An education at NCAD is the starting point for generations of bold and curious minds that have made an enormous contribution to society in many different ways. Experimentation in the studio, learning through doing, deep understanding of materials and processes, as well as the criticality that is embedded across all pathways, prepare graduates to thrive in and beyond the worlds of art and design. We cannot predict the kind of world our graduates will be working in, but we do know that the imagination, creativity and critical thinking they have gained during their time at NCAD will equip them to make an impact in whatever path they follow. We need thinkers and doers who are not afraid to ask questions, adapt and lead, and this generation of NCAD graduates’ creativity and resilience will benefit us all in years to come. 

So on behalf of An Bord and all my colleagues at NCAD – congratulations to all our graduating students, we are extremely proud of all that you have achieved and we look forward to following your creative journeys in the future.

NCAD Works 2023 Thomas St Campus

100 Thomas Street
Directions

9–16 June


Fri 9 June 10am–9pm
Sat 10 June 10am–5pm
Sun 11 June 10am–5pm
Mon 12 June 10am–8pm
Tue 13 June 10am–8pm
Wed 14 June 10am–8pm
Thu 15 June 10am–8pm
Fri 16 June 10am–6pm

Courses on show:

BA Fashion
BA Jewellery & Objects
BA Textile & Surface Design
Joint (Hons) Education Design or Fine Art
BA Graphic Design
BA Illustration
BA Moving Image Design
BA Interaction Design
BA Product Design
Applied Materials
Media
Painting
Print
Sculpture & Expanded Practice
MA Design for Body & Environment
MA Communication Design
MA Interaction Design

NCAD MFA Show

102–3 James’ Street
Directions
Map (PDF)

9–16 June

Fri 9 June 10am–9pm
Sat 10 June 10am–5pm
Sun 11 June 10am–5pm
Mon 12 June 10am–8pm
Tue 13 June 10am–8pm
Wed 14 June 10am–8pm
Thu 15 June 10am–8pm
Fri 16 June 10am–6pm

Courses on show:

MFA in Fine Art
MFA Art in the Contemporary World

NCAD Works Grace Gifford House

John St W
Directions
Media Map (PDF)

9–16 June

Fri 9 June 10am–9pm
Sat 10 June 10am–5pm
Sun 11 June 10am–5pm
Mon 12 June 10am–8pm
Tue 13 June 10am–8pm
Wed 14 June 10am–8pm
Thu 15 June 10am–8pm
Fri 16 June 10am–6pm

Courses on show:

Media

The mother motif is found in all cultures, it is a strong presence which exists in our minds unconsciously. It is a primordial image that has created an archetype of the maternal and has turned this role into something quite unattainable.

This body of work explores the repeated symbol of the mother with child. It appropriates and abstracts, whilst also critiquing how motherhood has been portrayed for centuries. The copper plate acts as the matrix which continues to reproduce these universal images of the mother – blessed with divine power, oppressed and trapped.

The barrier around the figure created by impressions of muslin – a traditional swaddling material –represents a woman’s struggle with being reduced to her biology. The dialogue between the manipulated fabric and the shape it naturally takes, speaks of the expectations of being a mother, along with the struggle of being without a child.

Emma Wills

Mother Matrix

she/her

Edit
*Mother Matrix*, spit bite and soft ground etching, 29 x 40 cm

Mother Matrix, spit bite and soft ground etching, 29 x 40 cm

*Blessed Blue*, spit bite and soft ground etching, 29 x 40 cm

Blessed Blue, spit bite and soft ground etching, 29 x 40 cm

*Never to Know the Load*, spit bite and soft ground etching, 29 x 40 cm

Never to Know the Load, spit bite and soft ground etching, 29 x 40 cm

*Tug of War*, soft ground etching, 29 x 40 cm

Tug of War, soft ground etching, 29 x 40 cm

*King*, spit bite and soft ground etching, 29 x 40 cm

King, spit bite and soft ground etching, 29 x 40 cm

Teaching Placements

Mount Sackville, Chapelizod, Dublin 20
Sutton Park School, Sutton, Dublin 13